Bank of England Governor Under Fire Over Over Climate Alarmism

Bank of England boss Mark Carney was under fire last night after warning that climate change could trigger a financial crisis. Critics said the Governor’s ‘alarmist’ comments went outside his remit and accused him of ‘politicising’ the job. The banker, whose wife Diana is a prominent green campaigner, described global warming as ‘the tragedy on the horizon’ for the world economy. Critics dismissed his views, with the Financial Times saying Mr Carney’s intervention ‘comes dangerously close to taking sides’. –Hugo Duncan, Daily Mail, 2 October 2015

The future is closer than you think. This planet could become a stranded asset once the Martian microbes of doom reach us. This is a serious matter. Britain’s small businesses will find it far harder to sell their goods and services once the cosmos is ruled by Martians reaching us from our next-door neighbour in the solar system. The insurance industry is far from prepared for that eventuality. This is a macroprudential issue if ever I saw one. ‚ÄìMystic Mark Carney, Financial Times, 1 October 2015

Wading into the climate change debate, Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, has signalled that there is almost no area of public discourse that can be considered off limits. What next? The war in Syria? Come to think of it, why not put the Bank of England in charge of everything? There was something faintly reckless and naive about the Governor’s intervention. It is no exaggeration to say that the whole of modernity is based on hydrocarbons. Without coal, oil and gas, we’d still be in an age of limited life expectancy, subsistence farming and riding to market on horse and cart. However much we might wish it, this dependence is not going to change for a long time to come. Mr Carney’s intervention was no doubt well meaning, but he should stick to the day job. –Jeremy Warner, The Daily Telegraph, 1 October 2015

The International Energy Agency, which is the most highly regarded forecaster in this sector, forecast that over the next 25 years fossil fuel demand ‚Äì so far from collapsing ‚Äì is likely to increase. That’s their central forecast. So, the first question is what does the Bank of England know that the International Energy Agency doesn’t know about the energy sector? The other is, although the economy is now doing very much better, there are a whole lot of remaining problems in the financial sector. Wouldn’t it be better if you focused your attention on those instead of engaging in green claptrap? ‚ÄìNigel Lawson questions Mark Carney, House of Lords 10 March 2015

India on Thursday submitted its ‘climate action plan’ to a UN body at Bonn in Germany, telling the world that the country would fight the climate change by taking energy efficiency route and reducing its ’emission intensity’ (carbon emission per unit of GDP) substantially as well as increasing the share of clean energy by huge 40% in its total energy mix by the year 2030. The country, however, clarified that “India’s INDC do not bind it to any sector specific mitigation obligation or action, including in agriculture sector. The successful implementation of INDC is contingent upon an ambitious global agreement including additional means of implementation to be provided by developed country parties, technology transfer and capacity building”. –Vishwa Mohan, Times of India, 2 October 2015

Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today sent a letter to Dr. Jagadish Shukla, a professor of climate dynamics at George Mason University who founded the Institute of Global Environment and Society (IGES). Chairman Smith: “IGES appears to be almost fully funded by taxpayer money while simultaneously participating in partisan political activity by requesting a RICO investigation of companies and organizations that disagree with the Obama administration on climate change.” In light of the non-profit’s decision to remove the controversial letter from its website, Smith directs IGES to preserve “all e-mail, electronic documents, and data created since January 1, 2009, that can be reasonably anticipated to be subject to a request for production by the Committee.” —Space Ref, 1 October 2015